The ‘Alpengarten’ is located on the Dobratsch at an altitude of 1500m on the ‘Villacher Alpenstraße’. It is easily accessible from the parking lot #6 of the Alpenstraße on a comfortable footpath in just a few minutes. The garden covers an area of 10,000m2 and is located directly above the so called "Red Wall". This wall has a height of approximately 1000 meters from the ‘Gailtal’ up to the Alpine Garden. Apart form the garden’s floridity it also offers a spectacular view of the mountains in the south and is located in the middle of the Dobratsch Nature Park.
The ‘Villacher Alpe’, or better known as Dobratsch, belongs to the southern Limestone Alps and is built up of various sediments of the Mesozoic. The so called ‘Wettersteinkalk’ with its light gray coloring forms up to 2166m the top layer of the Dobratsch, to the south the mountain breaks deep into the ‘Gailtal’ for more than 1000m. Since the mountain is located at a tectonic rupture line, the so called periadriatic seam, the area was repeatedly shaken by earth impacts. Large parts of the unstable south side of the mountain crashed into the valley in 1348 as a result of an earthquake. As a result, the Gail River was dammed up, large parts of the valley area were flooded, and subsequently re-landed by the Gail's boulder. Today the so-called "Schütt” is a nature reserve with a special fauna and flora.
Since 80% of the drinking water of the town of Villach comes from the mountain, the protection of this water has top priority. For this reason, ski lifts were dismantled, enhancing a more gentle way of tourism. Today the hikers enjoy the summer and in the winter the ski tourers love the local mountain of Villach, which is now a natural and water protection area of extraordinary importance. Due to the karst formation of the upmost limestone layer, no natural fontains appear at higher altitudes. In the Alpine Garden rainwater is collected on the roofs of the cottages and led into cisterns but all the drinking water has to be collected daily from the valley.
